Monte Cristo Award Honoring Meryl Streep

"… I just want to say that every venerable old lady, like the O’Neill and me, doesn’t like to think of themselves as a larded old institution. No matter how many tributes we’ve gotten, no matter how many successes we’ve launched, we like to think that new work will come to us, and that our best work is ahead of us, and that because of places like the O’Neill that foster new work, it’s possible. So thank you for the opportunity you gave me and about a hundred other theater hopefuls in 1975, in those six weeks. I will never forget it, and thank you to all of you for supporting this wonderful organization and for coming out for me.”